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Ahmadinejad: A radical dreamer By Manish Chand
The hardline leader, known for his ascetic lifestyle and rants against America, is in many ways the antithesis of the erudite, liberal, philosopher-politician Mohammed Khatmai, the last Iranian president India hosted five years ago. Demonised by the West for his defiance over Iran’s nuclear programme and propped up by powerful hawks in the Iranian establishment, the 52-year-old ultra conservative has come to mean different things to different people. Relatively unknown when he was appointed mayor of Tehran in 2003, it was a surprise to many when he bested the moderates on the stirring populist slogan of “We can do it” - that is, eliminating poverty and distributing oil wealth among the poor - to become the president of Iran in August 2005. But after nearly three years in power, he has come to be identified more closely with the spectre of the nuclear bomb the West accuses him of developing and fostering clandestinely and which he denies vehemently. A defiant speech at the UN on the nuclear issue where he defended Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy struck a chord among the Iranian people, yearning for power and prestige in a world dominated by Tehran’s pet hate: the US. An expert manipulator of mass psychology, Ahmadinejad, the son of a blacksmith and a civil engineer with a PhD in traffic and transport from Tehran’s University of Science and Technology, has artfully dodged the US-led efforts to isolate Tehran by cashing in on the country’s considerable economic and energy ties with China and Russia. A US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report last year saying Iran had suspended its nascent nuclear weapon programme in 2003 came as a shot in the arm for the beleaguered Iranian leader. Ahmadinejad quickly seized on the report to justify his uncompromising hostility to the West’s strident demand asking Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme that could be used for making bombs. His provocative comments to wipe Israel off the map of the world and description of the holocaust as a “myth” may have been lapped up some starry-eyed revolutionaries in Tehran streets. But it has only hardened the resolve of Tel Aviv and the powerful Jewish lobby in the US to isolate Iran. Born in Garmsar near Tehran Oct 28, 1956, his posturing can be traced to his radicalisation during youth when he took part in Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic revolution as a member of the Revolutionary Guards. There has been speculation about his role in the famous incident in which 52 Americans were held hostage in the US embassy in the months after the revolution. But Ahmadinejad denies his role in it. His election promise of “putting the petroleum income on the people’s tables” and ushering in an “exemplary government for the people of the world” has so far clashed with the hard rocks of Iranian reality. He has made some concessions to moderates by lifting a three-decade ban on Iranian women attending football matches. But that has hardly helped his dipping fortunes and popularity ratings as soaring inflation and frequent cabinet reshuffles have alienated many influential figures in the conservative establishment. His personal website, Mardomyar, which means People’s Friend, only reflects his penchant for populism. But Ahmedinejad has spent much of his energies in ensuring he remains the US’ “enemy number one” and not in addressing the real issues. He needs to strike a balance between the two. Unless he does that his chances of getting re-elected in next year’s presidential election may just vanish in clouds of popular disillusionment.
India intensifies global energy game (Commentary) By John StanlyIranian President Mohammad Ahmadinejad's brief but significant visit to India and his cautious criticism against the 'bullying' policies of the 'rulers of the world' (read the US and its European allies) make one point clear - New Delhi has finally come out of its strategic confusion. When India sent a strong message to the US ahead of the Iranian president's visit saying the 'two ancient civilizations' needed no guidance in dealing with each other, Ahmadinejad, seemingly understanding the sensitivity of India-US ties, did not use the platform in New Delhi to hit out at his 'enemies' in the same fashion as he often does in other capitals. This guarded approach from both sides set the stage for broader India-Iran cooperation in the rapidly intensifying global energy game. New Delhi's decision to welcome Ahmadinejad must have taken at least a few of India watchers by surprise. It was just two years ago that India, under pressure from Washington, voted twice against the Iranian nuclear programme in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Since then India's ties with Iran had not been as warm as they used to be. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has often been criticised both at home and abroad for not showing real interest in the proposed India-Pakistan-Iran (IPI) gas pipeline. Besides, bilateral ties between the two countries hit a new low earlier this year as Israel blasted off a spy satellite with the help of India. Iran's envoy to India even went public criticising New Delhi over the issue. Then why this turnaround? This could be seen as part of India's changing energy policy. According to a recent New York Times report, cosy relations with Iran are important for India at least for three reasons. Iran is India's second largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, is a potential source of natural gas in the future and wields influence in Afghanistan, a gateway for New Delhi to enter Central Asia's rich oil and gas fields. Still, India had been reluctant to engage Iran, particularly after the US intensified its campaign to isolate the Islamic Republic. The rumours of a possible US attack on Tehran have also pulled India back from going ahead with its ambitious energy plans. Now, with the US bogged down in Iraq and the possibility of an attack on Tehran looking remote, New Delhi is back on front-foot in the energy game. With oil prices skyrocketing, India does not have many options but to enter into comprehensive energy cooperation with resource-rich countries. The supply-demand mismatch in India has already sent out warning signals across the ruling class. India, which imports more than two- thirds of its oil needs, fears that the demand would rise by 90 percent by 2030. According to a recent report, India's average gas supply between April 2007 and January 2008 was 37 million standard cubic metres against the requirement of 77 million standard cubic metres. This rising demand of oil and gas across the world has already set the stage for a resource war at the global level in which countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia will become key players. The global scenario demands a tough policy decision from any emerging power like India. This realisation at the top level was visible when India took another diplomatic U-turn and welcomed the Myanmar military junta's second most important person, General Maung Aye, earlier this month. Myanmar, with proven gas reserves of 19 trillion cubic feet and vast unexplored areas, could become a potential partner in India's energy projects. If External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India was against imposing sanctions on Myanmar's junta ahead of Maung Aye's visit, it was National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan's turn to signal the thaw in India-Iran relations ahead of Ahmadinejad's visit. Speaking at an international strategic conference in New Delhi, Narayanan said the Iran issue should be handled diplomatically, not with force. This change in Iran policy seems to have come at the right time. Iran is no longer an isolated, untouchable republic as what the US wants it to be. Its clout is increasing across the Middle East. It has good relations with Iraq and Syria and enjoys the loyalty of Hezbollah, which virtually shattered Israel's plans in the second Lebanon war in 2006. Tehran extends moral support to the Palestinian Hamas and stands as an inspiration to the political Islamic movements across the region that challenge the cultural and military hegemony of the West. After all, India must be calculating that a new president in the White House in 2009 January, possibly a Democrat, will have better ties with Tehran than the Bush administration. Besides, Ahmadinejad's visit would help the UPA government counter the criticisms at home that it was acting as a client state of Washington. The UPA, which is preparing for the next year's general election, could use the improving India-Iran ties (if it happens) as a barometer of its 'independent foreign policy'. However, the worst is not yet over. Although both Ahmadinejad and India's Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon expressed optimism over the $7.6-billion IPI pipeline, several questions remain unanswered. Even if the price issue is settled, India's main concern would be the security of the pipeline. India wants two assurances from Islamabad and Tehran - Pakistan should ensure security to the pipeline, which runs through the troublesome Baloch area, and both Islamabad and Tehran should guarantee the continuous supply of gas irrespective of the political developments in those countries. New Delhi is also planning another pipeline project aimed at taking out gas from Turkmenistan via Iran and Pakistan to India. Talks about this project took centrestage as the earlier proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project looked impossible given the security situation in Afghanistan. Plans galore. But could New Delhi deliver? It is a tough test for India. It has to draw out policies to meet its energy requirements without antagonising its strategic allies. Relationship with the US remains the top priority of the policy makers in New Delhi. Israel is India's second largest supplier of defence equipment after Russia. How would India draw out a clear Iran policy without disturbing the existing equations? That is the major test New Delhi faces.
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A firebrand orator, soccer fan, America-baiter, populist leader playing with nuclear dreams, the little-known mayor of Tehran until he became president of Iran 30 months ago. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is unlike any Iranian leader India or the West has known. 
I can't go on, says Beckett's Unnamable. I will go on. A writer's injuries are his strengths, and from his wounds will flow his sweetest, most startling dreams.
And Proust, too, killing himself to write his book comes close to the concept of dharma when, echoing Balzac, he says that in the end it's less the desire for fame than 'the habit of laboriousness' that takes a writer to the end of a work. But dharma, as this ideal of truth to oneself, or living out the truth in oneself, can also be used to reconcile men to servitude and make them find in paralyzing obedience the highest spiritual good. 'And do thy duty, even if it be humble,' says the Aryan Gita,
'rather than another's, even it be great. To die on one's duty is life: to live in another' death.
My discovery over the years is that the mother tongues have so much in them, so much that is alive, and are much more pervasive, in all strata of society, in all ages from children to the very old, men and women, literate and non-literate. What holds them together? It's not Sanskrit. It's these mother tongues. I think I went into linguistics because of that. That spoken languages had to be very, very important. It was important in my youth to have discovered this.
Writing is a concentrated form of thinking. I don't know what I think about certain subjects, even today, until I sit down and try to write about them. Maybe I wanted to find more rigorous ways of thinking. We are talking now about the earliest writing I did and about the power of language to counteract the wallow of late adolescence, to define things, define muddled expression in economical ways. Let's not forget that writing is convenient. It requires the simplest tools. A young writer sees that with words and sentences on a piece of paper that costs less than a penny he can place himself more clearly in the world. Words on a page, that's all it takes to help him separate himself from the forces around him, streets and people and pressures and feelings. He learns to think about these things, to ride his own sentences into new perceptions.
Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. An artist is a creature driven by daemons. He doesn’t know why they chose him and he is usually too busy to wonder why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done.
I am trembling with cold